TY - GEN
T1 - Late Eocene impact ejecta in Italy
T2 - Attempts to constrain the impactor composition from isotopic analyses of spinel-rich samples
AU - Koeberl, Christian
AU - Montanari, Alessandro
AU - Schulz, Toni
AU - Tusch, Jonas
AU - Mougel, Florence
AU - Moynier, Frederic
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - The late Eocene was marked by multiple impact events, possibly related to a comet or asteroid shower. Marine sediments worldwide contain evidence for at least two closely spaced impactoclastic layers. The upper layer might be correlated with the North American tektite-strewn field (with the 85-km-diameter Chesapeake Bay impact structure [USA] as its source crater), although this is debated, whereas the lower, microkrystite layer (with clinopyroxene [cpx]-bearing spherules) was most likely derived from the 100-km-diameter Popigai impact crater (Russia). The Eocene-Oligocene global stratotype section and point is located at Massignano, Italy, and below the boundary, in the late Eocene, at the 5.61 m level, shocked quartz and pancake-shaped smectite spherules that contain (Ni- and Cr-rich) magnesioferrite spinel crystals are found. These are associated with a positive Ir anomaly in deposits with the same age as the Popigai-derived cpx spherule layer. This layer is overlain by another Ir-rich layer, likely due to another large impact event. From a large amount of “pancake-bearing” rock, we isolated a few hundred milligrams of this spinel-rich material. The tungsten isotopic composition of this material shows more or less a terrestrial composition. However, the spinel-rich materials have excess 54Cr values (expressed as ε54Cr, which is the per ten thousand deviation of the 54Cr/52Cr ratio from a terrestrial standard) of around –0.4 to –0.5 ε54Cr, which distinctly point to an ordinary chondritic impactor. This result supports the asteroid impact interpretation but not the comet impact hypothesis.
AB - The late Eocene was marked by multiple impact events, possibly related to a comet or asteroid shower. Marine sediments worldwide contain evidence for at least two closely spaced impactoclastic layers. The upper layer might be correlated with the North American tektite-strewn field (with the 85-km-diameter Chesapeake Bay impact structure [USA] as its source crater), although this is debated, whereas the lower, microkrystite layer (with clinopyroxene [cpx]-bearing spherules) was most likely derived from the 100-km-diameter Popigai impact crater (Russia). The Eocene-Oligocene global stratotype section and point is located at Massignano, Italy, and below the boundary, in the late Eocene, at the 5.61 m level, shocked quartz and pancake-shaped smectite spherules that contain (Ni- and Cr-rich) magnesioferrite spinel crystals are found. These are associated with a positive Ir anomaly in deposits with the same age as the Popigai-derived cpx spherule layer. This layer is overlain by another Ir-rich layer, likely due to another large impact event. From a large amount of “pancake-bearing” rock, we isolated a few hundred milligrams of this spinel-rich material. The tungsten isotopic composition of this material shows more or less a terrestrial composition. However, the spinel-rich materials have excess 54Cr values (expressed as ε54Cr, which is the per ten thousand deviation of the 54Cr/52Cr ratio from a terrestrial standard) of around –0.4 to –0.5 ε54Cr, which distinctly point to an ordinary chondritic impactor. This result supports the asteroid impact interpretation but not the comet impact hypothesis.
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1130/2019.2542(18)
DO - https://doi.org/10.1130/2019.2542(18)
M3 - Contribution to proceedings
VL - 542
T3 - Geological Society of America. Special Papers
BT - 250 Million Years of Earth History in Central Italy
ER -